Colorful Macarons

I want to gobble up each one of these colorful macarons from Sparkles Kitchen! These are perfect for a tea party--gorgeous, delicate and delicious. And they come in an assortment of yummy flavors.

Kumquats

I bought a package of kumquats from my local natural food store for the first time and we are addicted to them! I'm not sure what it is, but the sweet-tart taste combo makes you want to go back of more. Have you tried these little oval citrus fruit? I don't suggest popping the entire fruit in your mouth in one bite--you'll get a shock to your senses. But instead taking nibbles of the sweet skin and inside tart juices. It's suggested to also roll the fruit several times between your thumb and forefinger to release essential oils before you take your first bite. {image via flickr}

House Tour: Natalie's Sitting Room

Here's a peek into Natalie of ByrdieGraphics vintage-style sitting room. I love her eclectic, yet clean style. She collected a variety of different frame styles and spray painted them an off-white color. Then hung them with no pictures or backs. Love this unique idea! Her tufted loveseat is from LoveSac and pillows are from Anthropologie, Home Goods and Lovesac.


Her luggage trunks and rug are vintage. The white tree adds dimension and keeps with the clean white colors. She purchased it from etsy. And the white Eames chair adds a modern twist to the mix.

I love her black painted piano. It adds so much character to the room and keeps with the vintage style.

Thanks Natalie for sharing your vintage sitting room!

Long & Lean Statement Earrings

Sometimes the simplest earrings can make a big statement. These long and lean modern earrings on Ginnifer Goodwin do just that with her pixie haircut. Got short hair? You can get her same look (at least the earrings) by ordering the Colin earrings, which are only $18 and come in silver and gold.

Couple's Photo Op

At the chocolate party and past ones I've thrown, I like to have a silly photobooth set up for couples to take memorable pictures. Besides the overload of chocolate, it's one of my favorite parts of the evening because at the end of the night I have a picture of just me and the hubby. This year's photobooth was one of my favorite. I ordered the chalkboard speech bubbles from Playing Grown Up and the fabric backdrop is from Ikea. All the couples had a great time thinking up what they were going to write. Here are a few of my favorites.

My fabulous girls...

And babe...I'll have to disagree you on that one.

Chocolate Party

I tried to keep this year's Chocolate Party as simple as possible with minimal preparation. I did most of the decorations the night before and really put no thought into it--so it's a little random. Life gets busy with four kids! In keeping consistent with the invitations, I used black and white stripes and green in the decorations.

Simple decorations--green crepe paper, black candlesticks, black and white stripe table cloth

The couples are asked to bring a chocolate dessert to participate in a chocolate dessert contest. When they arrive, I have them label their dessert for voting. I made up chalkboard tags by using my die cutter machine and the fancy tag cutter. I bought sheets of chalkboard sticker labels and put the chalkboard sheets on heavy cardstock then cut out with the machine.

Keeping up with the chalkboard theme. I forgot to take a picture, but around the party I had white frames with fun chocolate facts.

In previous years I usually provide chocolate fondue or a chocolate fountain but this year because of lack of time, I just did chocolate-covered strawberries. That's one good thing about being the hostess--food is covered by the guests. I just provide the drinks. And there are always tons of leftovers, so guests fill up a box of remaining dessert to take home.

Each guest are given a voting card to decide which chocolate dessert was the best.

Prizes are given for the best chocolate dessert along with the best couple's photo-op (I'll post those pictures in another post) and the winner of the Not-So Newlywed game. We play the hilarious game every year with new questions. It's always a hit and adds a ton of laughter to the party.

myface.cosmetics

Did you watch The Bachelor? Every Monday night, a group of my girlfriends got together to watch the show. Guilty pleasure. I agree...it's a silly show. Anyway, if you watched the "Women Tell All" episode you probably noticed the tranformation of Ashley H. I thought she looked amazing (throw it back in Brad's face, right?). So stunning. What made her look so great was her make-up and dark hair. Loved it all.

Did you notice her sparkly brown eyeshadow? She was wearing bling eyeshadow, which is my new favorite makeup item! A must-have for a night out on the town or when you want your eyes to stand out. Myface.cosmetics sell the jewel-toned eyeshadows. After watching the show, I got the blingtones eyeshadow in black ice, diamond & pearls and morocco, which are gorgeous and sparkly. I've been playing around with them and you can wear a base shadow or not--the color is highly pigment. I've actually been wearing the diamond & pearls during the day and then the darker tones for night. Love them!

I also got the myface.cosmetics foundation. I've heard so many good things about it. It's not often that I change my makeup around but this is a new favorite everyday makeup item. Lightweight and natural looking but still covers blemishes (yes I still get them!).

Anyway, I highly recommend myface.cosmetics. They are big in the UK and are just getting their name out in the US. And a favorite among runway models and celebrities.

Chalkboard Speech Bubble

This week has been thrown off by one of my children who has strep throat. I'm final downloaded my pictures from the chocolate party this past weekend. I'll post about it tomorrow. But here's a picture of the hubby and I at the party's photo booth. This year I decided to do chalkboard speech bubbles. They were a hit and was my favorite part of the evening.

Shop Update: Silk Ribbon

I've been trying to use different art media in my jewelry design and have been enjoying working with silk ribbon. These ribbons are hand dyed and eco-friendly. They come in vibrant colors and are fade resistant. And they just look fabulous against gemstones. Here are two styles I just added in the shop:

Aubrey Necklace

Girlfriend Friendship Bracelet

PS--if you notice pictured with the Aubrey necklace is an identity charm necklace. I'll be adding those, and some other personalized necklaces, to the shop soon.

3 Months

I've gotten some comments from friends far away that I need to post more pictures of my little baby. She is 3 months now and growing! She is really is adapting well to our family and loves all the chaos and commotion. Here's what is up with Chloe:

• Her biggest accomplishment--sleeping through the night! Yippee! But she has to be put down a very specific way or else it doesn't work. And I seem to be the only one who knows how to do it.
• She still has a newborn cry
• She's laid back and doesn't need constant attention
• Loves to be sitting up to see everything. I really need to buy one of those bumbo seats.
• Has found her fingers and finds them quite tasty. I hope she doesn't suck her thumb like my other two.
• Loves the attention she gets from big brother Lucas

Lucas was helping me take her pictures. She was completely focused on him and wouldn't smile for me. I had him join in on the fun.

Chloe's felt headband is from Lou & Lee

Cloth diapers are GroVia

How to Make Cut Flowers Last

Here's a good tip for the next time you buy flowers for your house. Before you put the flowers in water, cut the stems at a 45-degree angle for maximum water absorption. Fill your vase with water, put your flower food in it and then add a couple of drops of bleach to reduce bateria. Keep water level below leaves or remove the foliage. Enjoy your flowers for the week.

Once the water turns yucky but the flower is still in pretty form (like the picture below), instead of throwing out I like to re-cut.


Same bouquet just shorter and in a smaller vase. Usually I like to split the bouquet into tiny flower arrangements and put them in randoms places like bathroom vanity, window sills and bedside tables. Enjoy for another week!

Hot Chocolate on a Stick Invites

This weekend I am throwing my 4th annual Chocolate Party. Back by popular demand! Since the party is an intimate gathering of friends, I try to put a little more thought into the invites. And since chocolate is involve, I like to also include something chocolate in the invite. Last year, the party's theme was apothecary, so the invites included chocolate pills. Usually I throw the party around Valentine's day, but I've been behind so since St. Patrick's day is around the corner I decided to use the color green in the invite. The weather is still a little chilly out here, so I made hot chocolate on a stick--two per couple and used them as the invites. I followed Giver's Log recipe, and they turned out really good. Very easy and quick to make.



After I made little "hot chocolate on a stick" labels and put two sticks in a clear bag.

And then closed the bags with a large label I made that has all the invite details. I was able to keep everything simple since everyone knows where I live and have all my numbers.

The back of the label had the directions for the hot chocolate.

I put the clear bag in a brown kraft bag and closed with fun green packaging tape.

I got a die cutter machine for Christmas. I'm finally putting it to use and was able to use a fancy tag die to make tags to personalize the bags. I hand delivered each of the invites.

I've still got a lot of stuff to get together for the party. Should be fun!

Goal this Weekend

Happy Friday everyone! My goal this weekend is to organize my children's closet, which has been a disaster since another child has been added to the mix. Wish me luck. It's a project I've been avoiding.

This closet is divine. I like how they maximized the space by putting shelves all the way up to the ceiling and even over the doorway.

{image via Deliciously Organized}

Mister and Lady Party

This mister and lady party is so adorable! I think it's a perfect birthday theme for boy and girl twins. Diana of Paper Daisy informed me of the darling party and did all the paper products, including the banner which is very similar to the birthday banner I did for Lucas's monster truck party. The party had oreo lollipops, donut hole lollipops, and cupcakes with high heel/tie cupcake toppers. The party hats and cupcake liners are my favorite. You can purchase the party kit here.